the_mysterious_mr_enterfandomcom-20200214-history
A brief update
So, the Brian's a Bad Father review is taking a bit longer than expected. Well, I would say that if it was a typical episode. Even among Family Guy episodes, it's kind of special. Not as bad as Screams of Silence, but it's the only episode that really tries to go for that award. Then after that, I don't know... I'll think of something to tackle. Maybe something that's been on the backburner for awhile, or something that just really peaks my interest (note that that's not always a positive thing, as Mulan II was something that really peaked my interest). I'm just trying to think of some of the worst single episodes that I've been sitting on the longest, besides Brian's a Bad Father. Unfortunately, most of the candidates in that category seem to be FOX show episodes - American Fung, Hank's Choice, Regarding Margie. ----- In other news, I've decided that Cyana is going to be the novel that I'm going to try to write this year. Cyana - Pilot. What I'm going to do is write the first draft as scripts as if it were a miniseries, like I did with the pilot. I'm predicting that there will be twelve of these things, but I can't give any guarantees on it. To basically spoil the plot of the pilot episode. Twelve-year-old Cyana lives in the quiet village of Ketmar with her father, who is frequently away on errands. In the meantime, she stays home and fishes with her spear. And trains with her powers. Cyana is one of the gifted - a type of person with a spiritual connection to the elements of the world. I've probably decided that they're non-humans because it's better incorporated into the type of story that I want to tell. At the start of the series, Cyana can shoot lightning bolts from her eyes and make a dome-like caged electrical shield around her. By the end of the "pilot" she's able to harness the power of lightning to move as fast as it... for a very short time. These powers have given Cyana a bit of an ego (which is definitely different from what I usually write). Cyana is very talented and is still learning new abilities. However, like most people, using these powers saps her energy. And if she uses too much, she will faint. And most people she faces fight her with cunning rather than raw strength - she tries to electrocute someone with water powers. The man with water powers sends a ball of water at her to catch the lightning in mid-flight and then the electrocuted water hits Cyana. The world of Cyana seems to be in a post-technological age. People live very rurally, but there are scattered bits of technology - trains and flying machines. One of Cyana's companions is a floating robotic ball named Oberon. But no one seems to trust technology in this world, except when they have to. The main story of the book happens when Cyana's father gets captured by adversaries from a former expedition. And of course, they want Cyana too because of her promising abilities. Even though Cyana herself has never seen her father use his abilities, they were great enough to change the world. And not every change was for the best, as Cyana slowly learns through the novel. Her main mission is to rescue her father, but along the way, she must piece together a mystery of who he really was to figure out if rescuing him is even the right and moral course of action. Is that a better pitch than "people with elemental powers in a steampunk world"? (It's not... quite steampunk, by the way). Like how Growing Around was influenced by things like Kids Next Door, Fillmore ''and ''Recess. Cyana ''is going to be influenced by ''Castle in the Sky, Zatch Bell, and Avatar: The Last Airbender... which is a weird combination of things, now that I think about it. So, why am I writing this over the second Growing Around ''novel? The answer is that... the dust still needs to settle. More people (that I know personally) still need to read it and tell me what they think about it and what should be in the sequel. Not enough time has passed, to put it plainly. I'll still be working on the animation though. That's a continual "never gonna give it up" thing until it's done. ---- So lately, self-imposed video game challenges have really ''really interested me. I don't know why, but I've been doing things like combing through my steam achievements list (by the way, can I see which of my achievements are the "rarest"? From what I can tell, Valve has done very little interfacing in this matter). I've dabbled in recording myself playing video games in the past, and I was wondering.... Should I start a channel where I basically played through video games with a self-imposed challenge. Like, that would be the point of everything. There'd be your well-known challenges like the Majora's Mask 3 Day Challenge ''or play through all of ''Baldur's Gate with only one party member. There's also be ones that I personally came up with - beat every action level in the original Scribblenauts with only 10 items across all levels... or kill every single named NPC (except Dagoth Ur) in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (hey, it was the last Bethesda game that let you actually kill people. Might as well take advtange of it). I probably wouldn't do speedruns - too many of them require glitches and I would like more room for error. You screw up on a speedrun, and you have to do the whole thing over... no matter how far into it you are. Maybe something crazy... like an Animal Crossing 100% speedrun. Yes, those exist. They usually take over 60 hours. Why would I want to do this? I mean, besides the whole "proof" thing. Quite honestly, I think it's entertaining to watch things like that. I'm a big fan of the PBG hardcore series. Remember, I've played so many video games that there's not much I can do except push games to ridiculous extremes. Remember, in Game Dev Tycoon, I've gotten the Unobtainium achievement. There are several standards that I know that I want to go with. 1.) I cannot use glitches or exploits (for example, say you want to win a Deity match in Civ 5. All you need to do is make it a score-based game, 1 turn long and give yourself a bunch of allies. I'd consider that an exploit. There is a difference between "exploit" and "cheap strategy"). There may be certain exceptions - for example, if an exploit is required to actually get into the challenge or actually win the challenge, and performing the exploit is the difficult part. 2.) Every challenge must have a "fail" condition. I mean, sure a Morrowind Genocide Route sounds difficult, but you can keep saving and reloading until you conquer the law of averages. In a route like that, I'd probably give myself a "no death" clause. Keep in mind, that these challenges don't need to have a "win condition". For example - a "live as long as possible" challenge. 3.) I can use emulators (they are much easier to record than using capture cards), but I can't use save-states, etc. Otherwise, I can only use what was intended by the designers to play said game... unless that's the challenge itself (playing a difficult game with a ''Guitar Hero ''controller for instance) 3.) Now... this is the interesting one. And the one that I am debating the most - I must upload the challenges, regardless of win or lose status. Like, I don't want to do this to show-off. I want to create entertainment and some tension. It wouldn't be fun if I won every time, would it? If I do fail a challenge, I can attempt it again at a later date (I probably wouldn't want to do a back-to-back run anyway). The caveat is that I can practice all I want and I don't have to upload that. What do you think? Does that sound entertaining? Category:Miscellaneous